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Photo gallery: celebrate 25 years of Side Effects

This is how the future looked in 1996: a screenshot from the very first version of Houdini.

Not many software developers can say that the company is now older than many of its users. It must be the technology equivalent of realising that police officers look so much younger these days, or that your generation is now running the government, and that officially everything is your fault, ever.

Side Effects has weathered the years more gracefully than most, and has now celebrated its 25th birthday in typically modest fashion with a blog from co-founder Kim Davidson, and a photo timeline on its Facebook page.

If you’ve been involved with the company over the years, you’ll see a lot of familiar faces. If not, you can still look back at screenshots of Houdini 1.0, and Prisms, its precursor, and marvel at how much things have changed.

Prisms 5.3 in action in the early 90s. Never mind the UI: that’s still a procedural network!

And if that’s put you in the mood for a little celebratory drink, Side Effects has also just announced its annual Siggraph shindig, which you can sign up for online.